President-elect Donald Trump ran and campaigned on a strong platform for keeping and creating jobs for Americans. While still waiting for his inauguration, the Republican has been busy negotiating with big companies to keep jobs in the U.S. for Americans like what he accomplished with Carrier. Perhaps in response to the top presidential agenda of the incoming president, the CEO of a large software company announces plans to give 25,000 jobs to Americans, a day before meeting Trump in Manhattan.
IBM's CEO Ginni Rometty shares the news in an editorial on Tuesday, saying the first 6,000 people from the planned 25,000 jobs will be hired in 2017, Trump's first year in office. Rometty also said that IBM is also working to invest $1billion in training and development of its U.S. employees in the next four years, or during Trump's first term as President.
Rometty also introduces the emerging worker classification she calls " new collar" which she describes as " not about white versus blue collar jobs, but jobs that employers in many industries demand, but which remain largely unfulfilled". Rometty shares that such is the result of disruptive changes in technology, markets and society which leaders in various industries including business, the government and civil society both in the U.S. and the world need to contend with. Such changes have a major impact on economies and employment.
Rometty also shares that many of these new collar jobs may not even require the conventional college degree. What is important for certain jobs are relevant skills by the workers that may be obtained through vocational training. The CEO reveals that in IBM's offices and operations spread across the U.S., one third of their employees do not possess a four-year college degree.
The new strategy of IBM is focused on creating new, permanent jobs, although it would be recalled that earlier this year IBM laid off nearly 14,000 workers. It is not yet clear if their new plans now have something to do - or in response perhaps also- with Trump's vow to prioritize jobs for Americans and keep the U.S. economy healthy.
It is also not yet clear how IBM plans to respond to Trump's call for companies to stop outsourcing U.S. jobs. The technology industry leads in the practice of hiring foreign workers through H-1B visasa. President-elect Trump is set to meet today with tech industry leaders and movers in a technology summit set in New York.
